Talking about personal experiences in French

Level A2

Talking about personal experiences in French

In spoken French, the passé composé is used for life experiences and completed events at a particular time, where English often switches between “have done” and “did.” In these questions, déjà means “ever,” though it can mean “already” elsewhere. Use tu with friends and familiar people, and vous for polite address or more than one person; the subject–verb order shown works in spoken questions, while inversion in “Quand avez-vous fait votre dernier voyage ?” sounds more formal. Most verbs here use avoir, but aller uses être, and its past participle agrees with the subject: allé for one man, allée for one woman, and allés or allées for a group.

Déjà: asking about previous experience

Have you ever…? Questions with tu and vous

sujet auxiliaire au présent déjà participe passé avec accord si nécessaire complément ?

Answering yes, never or a number of times

réponse affirmative ou négative, sujet verbe au passé composé avec accord si nécessaire fréquence ou négation avec {jamais|never}.

Conversation with tu: cooking a family meal

Conversation with vous: visiting Japan

Answering briefly and telling what happened

You can answer “Oui, une seule fois.” without repeating the verb; English-style “Yes, I have” does not translate as oui, j'ai alone. For “never,” put ne before the auxiliary and jamais after it: “Non, je n'ai jamais cuisiné pour ma famille.” In “Oui, j'y suis allé deux fois,” y means “there” and comes before the auxiliary, while deux fois gives the number of visits; these replies can be used with either tu or vous.

Open a particular story with the time, as in “C'était dimanche dernier. D'abord, j'ai fait une soupe.” Use d'abord for “first,” ensuite for “then” and alors for “so,” followed by the outcome and your reaction. The completed actions use the passé composé, while c'était sets the scene and “j'étais content” describes how the speaker felt; a woman would say contente.

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